Stepping Through Nine Trials, Part One

The hall fell silent. A moment later, everyone burst out laughing, filling the casino with a cheerful air.

The casino's cultivator laughed too.

"It's good for young people to have ambition, but don't boast too much. Know your limits..."

But he couldn't finish.

Zheng Zetian tossed a pile of magical treasures onto the table: a golden saber, a golden brick, a golden rope, a golden hairpin, and a golden ring.

"Add these to the stake. Give me an estimate."

The casino's manager froze and hesitated, but in the end, the glittering golden light before his eyes won him over, and he agreed.

Though these magical treasures from Tianfu Mountain were all graded items and worked reasonably well, and though Ling Bao was useless and Zheng Zetian had casually rubbed away its Divine Sense, they still belonged to someone else.

Zheng Zetian had merely used unorthodox methods to imitate the Mystic Sect's treasure-control techniques, tricking these treasures—whose spirits were still dimly aware—into serving him. But at their core, the talisman seals used to forge and refine them still belonged to Sanyuan Jizhenzong.

That woman, Real Person Shuxin, was especially devious. She'd said she was giving him the things to use, but she hadn't taught him the true formulas, keeping a contingency in reserve. Now she and her lover had died under suspicious circumstances, and the Extreme Truth Sect would investigate sooner or later. How could the Mystic Sect fail to calculate the whereabouts of its own magical treasures? If their rightful owner found them, a casual incantation would be enough to take them back. Naturally, it was best to sell them off as soon as possible.

Since he had to get rid of them anyway, Zheng Zetian didn't have time to slowly cleanse the Mystic Sect's talisman seals and secret curses.